ASK Cub Reporter- 02.15.2012- Your Questions, My Gibberish
Hi Brian my name is Josh Pease I’m a big fan of your site. Anyways I’m emailing you to ask some questions about your site. I have just launched my own site which is still under construction but live none the less. I have watched your site for a very long time and like your idea. The same kind of idea is going into my site. I don’t want it to be just a racer site or just a basher site I want it to serve both as well as have lots of info on different things like setup build tips etc. What my question is. Is how did you get started? How did you go about getting site sponsors and product to review etc. I dont expect you to give me all your secrets lol I’m just looking for some help. Ive been in the RC industry for over 20 years as a factory driver a independent driver as well as running tracks and hobby shops.The reason I started the site was I always get people all over the US calling and asking how to do this or do that. So I thought well I’ll put it into a website to better serve the community. I would also like to put up a link to your site on my page if at all possible. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Josh Pease
Cubby– Hey what’s up Josh, I stole your email from Brian and here you are on the front page of BSRC.
How did BigSquid get started? I have zero idea on that one, but if I had to guess I’d say Brian was sitting around exceptionally bored one day, had an extra $20 in his paypal account, and figured what better way to waste an afternoon than to start a website. Seriously, that is just speculation on my part, but probably pretty close to the truth knowing Brian as well as I do. LOL
How do you get site sponsors (read- advertisers) and product to review? You simply ask. But… asking manufactures is the easy part. I mean it only takes 30 seconds to fire off an email saying “I have a website, wanna pay me $800 a month to advertise and send me free stuff to break in half?”. The hard part is getting anyone to actually do it. Getting them to pay/send you stuff boils down to one thing- traffic. Your website has gotta be pull’n higher numbers than the other thousand websites that request stuff every month.
There are a googolplex rc websites out there, I’d hope your main reason for starting one isn’t simply to “serve the community”. While quite noble, there are plenty of resources out there that are a Bing search away to help anyone with any rc problem. My advise is this- if you start an rc website, start it as an expression of yourself, a site you’d contribute to every day even if you knew you wouldn’t get one hit from it. Trust me on this one….
In Flight Control
Hi, Me and my dad have been disagreeing on weather the engine has any control of the pitch of an rc truck in the air? I was saying that the engines torque and momentum can raise or lower the nose depending on the dirrection but my dad says the engine has no effect if it is in full forward or if you throw it into full reverse mid flight. basically i am wondering if the engine will control the truck in the air as in nose up or down? also how do you control the truck in the air? it would be appreciated for an answer. Thank You
Justin F.
Cubby– Hello there Justin, thanks for the email.
Ya know, there is a dern good reason science classes exist. Not only are they good for learning such things as the heat death of our universe, but science classes also come in mighty handy for rc.
So… your Dad is wrong, you are correct. But don’t rub it in, that can have an adverse affect on your weekly allowance. 🙂
To boil it down, when you hit a jump and the nose of your truck is too high, simply tapping the brakes will stop the heavy rotating mass of your tires and this will bring the front of your truck down. If you hit a jump and the nose of your truck is too low, you can mash the gas making your tires rotate faster and this can help raise the front of your truck.
And it’s not so much the stopping or starting of the motor/engine as it is the stopping or accelerating of your tires. The tires have much more mass, therefore having a much greater effect on the pitch of your truck.
Lastly… by using steering in addition to throttle/brake while in the air (especially with 4wd’s) you can also affect the roll and yaw of your truck. This is much harder to master, but can yield some pretty spectacular effects (including the ability to Bubba Scrub). Brian and Wrench did a pretty tubular write up on how to jump rc trucks a few months ago for HobbyTown USA, you can take a look at it HERE (starts on page 16).
Practice makes perfect, so get out there, huck some big air, and have a great time showing your Dad the physics of rc. Oh and… shoot us some pics of your airborne antics!
That’s it for this week, submit your questions, jokes, randoms thoughts on string theory, etc to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!
YOUR Cub Reporter
